


An Inch to the Left

by SegaBarrett



Category: Power (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27592208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SegaBarrett/pseuds/SegaBarrett
Summary: Luck wins out.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 1
Collections: Fixed That For You Fest 2020





	An Inch to the Left

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Power, and I make no money from this.

They said later that the bullet went straight through her, but Raina wasn’t sure if she believed that. Thinking back on it, she imagined her big winter coat protecting her and bouncing the bullet back like armor. 

She was in the hospital for three weeks, and she didn’t remember very much at all, just voices. Her father’s voice, her mother’s, and Tommy’s too of course. He and her father had been at some kind of impasse but apparently that was over, at least for the time being.

At least until Raina was out of the woods for good.

The voice she never heard was Tariq’s.

When it was time to go home, neither of her parents answered her questions about him, where he was or what he was doing, and she began to fear the worst. Had her intervention with Ray-Ray only delayed Tariq’s murder? Maybe that was the reason he had never come to see her.

Her pulse quickened, and her mind began to flood with the possibility. She might have missed his funeral – and what if they never told her at all? She and Tariq had figured out long ago that their parents were willing to lie.

Her breath quickened as she imagined that – going home and never having the courage to ask her parents what had happened to Tariq, and just living the rest of her life never talking about him.

And then they made it back to the penthouse. She ran to his room, threw the door open, and saw Tariq laying on the bed and playing video games, looking up at her with annoyance.

“Hey, I’m really busy. I need to beat this level,” he said, and turned back to the screen.

Raina backed up into the living room, swallowing a scream.

***

“Raina, honey,” her mother said, but it was hard for her to hear. Everything seemed foggy, somehow. 

“He’s been here the whole time?” Raina snapped. “He didn’t even care at all? He couldn’t even come see me in the hospital?” Her throat hurt, and her chest did too, but she couldn’t stop herself. She threw herself on the ground and pounded it, like a child. The fact that Tariq could be so callous after all of this, that he didn’t even care. That his face hadn’t even changed for a second when she had entered the room.

“Raina!” her father yelled, “You can’t stress yourself out like this. You’ll hurt yourself.”

“He wouldn’t care! None of you care! You saw his face… He didn’t even care.” Raina began sobbing so hard that she couldn’t breathe. She had spent the entire time worrying about Tariq, picturing him in pieces or in a casket or just lost and gone forever. She wondered if she should have told her parents everything, but they had made him this way. They had made both of them this way.

Tasha wrapped her arms around Raina and held her close.

“Baby, of course he cares. He just doesn’t know how to show it. But honey, we also need to know what happened, if you’re ready to tell us. We need to protect you. No one should have ever tried to do anything to hurt you.”

Raina rubbed her eyes. She should tell them everything, she should blow all of Tariq’s lies wide open. Someone should tell the truth in this house.

But her mind kept coming back to the promise she had made to Tariq. He might be an asshole, but he was her twin, too. Maybe they were two halves of the same coin, sometimes. She couldn’t turn her back on him.

“I don’t really remember anything that happen before,” Raina said. “I just remember being at the dance and then waking up in the hospital.”

She wished that that was all she remembered. She wished that she didn’t see Ray-Ray every time she shut her eyes, staring her down as she called his name, called him out and vowed to destroy him if he were to hurt Tariq. She wished that she didn’t remember the pain in her chest as she had fallen backwards and hit the icy ground, thinking bizarrely of how her nice new coat was going to be ruined.

“Where’s my coat?” she asked, then, wanting to wrap it around her and have it as a barrier, have it as a way to keep her safe. 

“It was destroyed, Raina,” her mother said, “We had to throw it out. We can go get you a new one.”

She looked down at the floor. Maybe it had been a mistake to come home… maybe she should have just stayed at the hospital, or tried to go to school somewhere else. Everything had changed – even home didn’t feel like home anymore.

“I’m going to go to my room,” she said. She walked into the room and slammed the door, collapsing on the bed and crying. 

That was what she got, she thought to herself, for trying to save Tariq. That was what she got for trusting any of her family. Maybe she should run away, slip out the window and go away… somewhere.

Maybe that was what both of her parents had done. She didn’t know much about either of their childhoods, other than that her father’s father had died back when he was young and that Tommy’s mother had taken him in. Tommy’s mother, who would do cocaine with Tommy when he was twelve.

Raina guessed that it could be worse. That could be her story – she could be alone without anyone else in the world to rely on. But wasn’t that what it was like, if Tariq wouldn’t even talk to her?

She heard hushed tones through the walls but couldn’t make out what anyone was actually saying, Then she waited for everyone else to go to bed, until she heard no more footsteps and no more creaks along the floorboard.

Slowly, she left her room and headed for Tariq’s. She knocked quietly.

The door opened, and not a word was spoken. She didn’t even see Tariq at the door, but instead glided through it to stand in the room.

She could remember them playing together as kids – they had always had their own room, something about how their parents felt they needed to develop individual identities so they didn’t fall into some kind of twin pathology. But it hadn’t done much good – half the time they had slipped in to sleep in the other’s room or even their bed, being lonely and awkward away from each other. At least, up until they were twelve or so, and then began to be embarrassed by the mere mention of liking being around each other.

Now, Raina walked in and took a seat on Tariq’s bed without asking for permission. He was still sitting, controller in his hand and in his lap, playing his game and not saying anything to her. Not yet, anyway.

“Tariq. What happened to you?” she asked.

“I killed the man who tried to kill you,” he blurted, “Before you think you’re gonna go rat on me about it to them, they already know.” He killed a few more zombies on the screen. “I grew up while you were gone.”

Raina leaned back on the bed and let her head fall on Tariq’s pillow.

“Do you think when we grow up we’ll be like Mom and Dad?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to be like dad. He’s just a liar.” Tariq spat the word. 

“They said that if the bullet was an inch to the left, I would have died,” Raina said quietly. “If I had, would you have killed Ray-Ray twice?”

Tariq rolled his eyes and went back to his game.

“Next time, don’t run at a man with a gun. That was stupid.”

They didn’t speak for the rest of the night.


End file.
